I have a few questions. Do viruses work without their genetic material? I mean can they still infect cells without genetic material? Does the virus or genetic material get damaged or destroyed if a poison is inserted? If you can answer these, then thanks.

To prevent virus from replication you need protease inhibitor in the cases in which the virus RNA encodes polyprotein which is then cleaved. DNA viruses uses the host cell enzymes to replicate ( and RT) and this is not possible for them.

GDU12 wrote:I have a few questions. Do viruses work without their genetic material? I mean can they still infect cells without genetic material? Does the virus or genetic material get damaged or destroyed if a poison is inserted? If you can answer these, then thanks.

in order to affect a cell, the genome of a virus is not required. That depends on the permissiveness en capacity of binding of the virus to it's target cell.

--> the genome is required for a succesfull reproductive cycle of the virus in order to spread.

ping wrote:To prevent virus from replication you need protease inhibitor in the cases in which the virus RNA encodes polyprotein which is then cleaved. DNA viruses uses the host cell enzymes to replicate ( and RT) and this is not possible for them.

if you mean RT = reverse transcriptase, then you're not talking about DNA viruses

I guess it would depend on what kind of poison you are using. The term poison is very vague. For example, the drug oseltamivir phosphate blocks the viral neuroaminidase of the influenza virus, making it unable to enter a host cell.

Most poisons however, are directed at a virus' replication cycle, after it has entered the cell. A nice example is the cocktail treatment of HIV. More drugs are used so that the replication is slowed down in every stage.

Regards,
Andrew

"As a biologist, I firmly believe that when you're dead, you're dead. Except for what you live behind in history. That's the only afterlife" - J. Craig Venter